[] Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Subscribe to our newsletter
- A new report from KB Securities gets very gloomy about the RAM crisis
- We’re told the “memory chip market is heading toward a severe supply shortage” in 2027
- AI demand has ramped up massively with infrastructure investments up 60% year-on-year to $1.3 trillion, creating even more demand for memory as fuel for that rise
If you thought the RAM crisis was going to get worse next year, you’re very probably right — but apparently we might suffer an even more severe shortage than some analysts already expect.
Wccftech flagged up an article from Business Korea (translated from Korean), which suggests that the RAM squeeze is tightening its grip on two of the biggest memory chip makers.
Citing a report from KB Securities, the rumor is that Samsung and SK Hynix are now down to fewer than 10 days of memory inventory, which is very close to running dry.
Latest Videos FromTechRadar
This has caused concerns that available memory supplies could dwindle and be depleted in 2027, with analysts believing that the “memory chip market is heading toward a severe supply shortage” (again, bear in mind this is a translation, but the message is clear enough).
KB Securities notes that the AI boom is what’s causing this, as memory chip manufacturers struggle to meet demand for HBM4 memory in AI data centers. Infrastructure investments for AI development have been revised upwards to $1.3 trillion for 2027, we’re told, which is a 60% year-on-year increase.
You may like
Kim Dong-won, head of research at KB Securities, told Business Korea that: “AI servers will absorb demand for not only HBM but also server DDR5 and enterprise SSDs, potentially leading to a historic shortage.”
There’s a brighter spot of news from laptop maker Framework though, which, as VideoCardz reports, has taken an unusual step in reducing the price of some of its products. As you may recall, Framework has been hiking laptop prices due to the increased cost of RAM (as have other notebook manufacturers), but the company just announced that it has secured some fresh memory modules at a lower price.
{ window.reliablePageLoad.then(() => { var componentContainer = document.querySelector(“#slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-5djZZJcFT4mzR48buFahMg”); if (componentContainer) { var data = {“layout”:”inbodyContent”,”header”:”Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox”,”tagline”:”Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.”,”formFooterText”:”By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.”,”usDisclaimerFooterText”:”By signing up, you agree to our Terms of services and acknowledge that you have read our Privacy Notice. You also agree to receive marketing emails from us that may include promotions from our trusted partners and sponsors, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.”,”successMessage”:{“body”:”Thank you for signing up. You will receive a confirmation email shortly.”},”failureMessage”:”There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.”,”method”:”POST”,”inputs”:[{“type”:”hidden”,”name”:”NAME”},{“type”:”email”,”name”:”MAIL”,”placeholder”:”Your Email Address”,”required”:true},{“type”:”hidden”,”name”:”NEWSLETTER_CODE”,”value”:”XTR-D”},{“type”:”hidden”,”name”:”LANG”,”value”:”EN”},{“type”:”hidden”,”name”:”SOURCE”,”value”:”60″},{“type”:”hidden”,”name”:”COUNTRY”},{“type”:”checkbox”,”name”:”CONTACT_OTHER_BRANDS”,”label”:{“text”:”Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands”}},{“type”:”checkbox”,”name”:”CONTACT_PARTNERS”,”label”:{“text”:”Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors”}},{“type”:”submit”,”value”:”Sign me up”,”required”:true}],”endpoint”:”https://www.techradar.com/.newsletter-subscribe/v2/submission/submit”,”analytics”:[{“analyticsType”:”widgetViewed”}],”ariaLabels”:{}}; var newsletterForm;(()=>{var e={757:(e,t,n)=>{e.exports=n(666)},363:(e,t,n)=>{“use strict”;function r(e,t){(null==t||t>e.length)&&(t=e.length);for(var n=0,r=new Array(t);nj});var a=n(651),i=n.n(a),l=function(e){if(“undefined”!=typeof document){var t=document.cookie.match(“(^|;) ?”.concat(e,”=([^;]*)(;|$)”));return t?t[2]:null}return null};function c(e,t,n){return t in e?Object.defineProperty(e,t,{value:n,enumerable:!0,configurable:!0,writable:!0}):e[t]=n,e}function u(e,t){var n=Object.keys(e);if(Object.getOwnPropertySymbols){var r=Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(e);t&&(r=r.filter((function(t){return Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(e,t).enumerable}))),n.push.apply(n,r)}return n}function s(e){for(var t=1;t-1&&”email”===(null==g?void 0:g.toLowerCase())&&_(“text”),”hidden”===(null==u?void 0:u.toLowerCase())&&t&&(y((function(e){return s(s({},e),{},c({},t,n))})),”COUNTRY”===(null==t?void 0:t.toUpperCase()))){var e=l(“FTR_Country_Code”)||l(“FTR_User_Defined_Country_Code”)||void 0;y((function(n){return s(s({},n),{},c({},t,e))}))}}),[]);var b=i().createElement(“input”,{“data-hydrate”:!0,type:g,className:”form__”.concat(u,”-input “).concat(h),value:n,name:t,required:v,disabled:p,placeholder:f,autoFocus:w,onChange:function(e){if(“submit”!==u){var t=e.target,n=t.name,r=t.value,o=t.checked;y((function(e){return s(s({},e),{},c({},n,”checkbox”===u?o:r))}))}}});return r?i().createElement(“label”,{className:”form__”.concat(u,”-label”)},b,i().createElement(“span”,{dangerouslySetInnerHTML:{__html:r.text||””}})):i().createElement(i().Fragment,null,b)};var d=function(e){var t=e.layout,n=e.method,r=e.action,c=e.handleSubmit,u=e.inputs,s=o((0,a.useState)({}),2),d=s[0],v=s[1],m=”US”===l(“FTR_Country_Code”)||!1;return i().createElement(“form”,{“data-hydrate”:!0,className:”newsletter-form__form newsletter-form__form–“.concat(t),method:n,action:r,onSubmit:function(e){return c(e,d)},tabIndex:”exitIntent”===t?-1:void 0},null==u?void 0:u.filter((function(e){return!m||”CONTACT_OTHER_BRANDS”!==e.name&&”CONTACT_PARTNERS”!==e.name})).map((function(e){return i().createElement(f,{key:””.concat(e.name,”-“).concat(e.value),setFormValues:v,type:e.type,label:e.label,value:e.value,name:e.name,placeholder:e.placeholder,required:e.required,inputClassName:”form_input form__”.concat(e.type,”-input form__”).concat(e.type,”-input–“).concat(t)})})),m&&i().createElement(i().Fragment,null,i().createElement(f,{key:”CONTACT_OTHER_BRANDS”,setFormValues:v,type:”hidden”,name:”CONTACT_OTHER_BRANDS”,value:”true”,inputClassName:””}),i().createElement(f,{key:”CONTACT_PARTNERS”,setFormValues:v,type:”hidden”,name:”CONTACT_PARTNERS”,value:”true”,inputClassName:””})))};function v(e,t,n,r,o,a,i){try{var l=e[a](i),c=l.value}catch(e){return void n(e)}l.done?t(c):Promise.resolve(c).then(r,o)}function m(e){return function(){var t=this,n=arguments;return new Promise((function(r,o){var a=e.apply(t,n);function i(e){v(a,r,o,i,l,”next”,e)}function l(e){v(a,r,o,i,l,”throw”,e)}i(void 0)}))}}var p=n(757),h=n.n(p);const y=function(e,t){setTimeout((function(){window.freyr.cmd.push((function(){window.freyr.pushAndUpdate(e,t)}))}),0)},w=function(e){if(!e)return null;var t=e.title,n=e.body,r=e.buttonText,o=document.querySelector(“.kiosq-description”),a=document.querySelector(“.kiosq-conditions”);return o&&o.insertAdjacentHTML(“afterend”,”.kiosq-description {display:none;}”),a&&a.insertAdjacentHTML(“afterend”,”.kiosq-conditions {display:none;}”),i().createElement(“div”,{“data-hydrate”:!0,className:”newsletter-form__message–kiosq”},i().createElement(“p”,{className:”newsletter-form__message–kiosq-title”},t),i().createElement(“p”,{className:”newsletter-form__message–kiosq-text”},n),i().createElement(“button”,{className:”newsletter-form__message–kiosq-button”,onClick:function(){document.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent(“kiosqRegwall”,{detail:{message:”email sent”}})),localStorage.setItem(“kiosqRegwall”,”Email already sent”)}},r))};function E(e,t){var n=Object.keys(e);if(Object.getOwnPropertySymbols){var r=Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(e);t&&(r=r.filter((function(t){return Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(e,t).enumerable}))),n.push.apply(n,r)}return n}function g(e){for(var t=1;t
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
This means that some of its current Framework Laptop orders will be knocked down in price, and the company said on X that it’s “retroactively reducing prices for orders that shipped at higher price” too.
Analysis: there’s a historic level of gloom, that much is certain
(Image credit: vlado85rs / Getty)
It’s impressive to see Framework acting in the best interests of its customers, particularly seeing as the firm could have (theoretically) kept quiet about bagging a batch of cheaper memory chips, and just kept the difference itself.
While that’s commendable, it’s a pretty small (but still welcome) bone we’re being thrown in the face of the bad news for the RAM crisis here. Talk of a “historic shortage” is worrying, and it feels like this is an escalation of the recent chatter about global memory supply woes which has already turned highly negative.
While this latest report talks about server DDR5 RAM (and HBM), this will obviously have a bearing on consumer products, too. Those less profitable memory sticks are going to end up sidelined even further.
With rumors about GPU price hikes again coming to the fore this week, it’s difficult to catch a breath between the bouts of bad news. We can hope that the pessimism is overblown here, but I can’t shake the feeling that this seems unlikely.
Follow TechRadar on Google News andadd us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.
The best laptops for all budgets
Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons
Source